


Coming Home

by Innwich



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternative Universe - FBI, Childhood Friends, FBI Agent Castiel, M/M, Murder, Pining, Pining Dean, Reunions, Serial Killers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-09
Updated: 2014-08-09
Packaged: 2018-02-12 11:34:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2108343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Innwich/pseuds/Innwich
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Adam was the latest victim of a notorious serial killer. On the crime scene, Dean came face to face with Castiel, an old friend that happened to be an FBI special agent that was hot on the trail of the killer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coming Home

Dean stood in his front yard, on the grass he trimmed two days ago, while police officers and forensics teams wandered in and out of his house. Most of his neighbors were gathered in a small crowd behind police tape. Dean spotted Richard and Daisy, the couple that lived across the street; they were doing a remarkable impression of a goldfish. He resisted the urge to greet them good morning.

It was weird how much this felt like any other day of the week.

There were a dozen of reporters from the local news stations. They were talking about ‘disembowelment’ and ‘serial murder’ and ‘the Ben Butcher’ and ‘a calling card with the word, BEN’. A reporter tried to interview Dean, since he was ‘the man who discovered the body’, but a police officer steered her back behind police tape. Dean couldn’t remember if he’d called in sick yet, but it probably didn’t matter now since he knew Gary watched the morning news.

Dean could still see the blood on his hands every time he closed his eyes.

He tried to focus on warming his numbing toes in his slippers. The bathrobe he put on before calling the police was nowhere near warm enough for a cold October morning like this.

He should’ve worn his jacket.

A light tap on his shoulder startled him. “Dean.”

Dean turned around to find Cas standing behind him. Cas was wearing a tan trench coat over a black suit. He looked older and the lines around his eyes were deeper, but with his piercing eyes and sharp jawline, he was unmistakably the Cas that Dean knew. After more than ten years, Cas still made Dean’s heartbeat quickened.

“They’re moving Adam to the morgue. I thought you might like to know,” Cas said. He was looking at where two men were loading a body bag into the back of a van. Dean hadn’t noticed them moving Adam’s body out of the house.

“Yeah,” Dean said, watching the van leave his driveway. A news crew tried to follow it.

“How are you feeling?” Cas said.

“Not good,” Dean said. “I just found my half-brother’s body in the bathtub this morning, but all I can think about is how I need to buy more toilet paper because we’re running short. It’s fucked up.”

“It’s the shock,” Cas said firmly. “It takes some time for grief to fully set in.”

“Yeah, that’s it,” Dean said.

They fell silent. Cas was frowning, staring out at the pale faces of the crowd like they were a Calculus problem that he just couldn’t figure out. He wore the same expression in one of his old photos that Dean kept, only younger and his features softer. Dean couldn’t help feeling a surge of fondness for the man. Some things never changed.

“So, how’s it feel to be back?”

“It’s… strange,” Cas said, turning his gaze on Dean. Dean almost shivered. He’d missed that intense attention being directed at him. “I’ve been chasing the Butcher across the country for the last two years, Dean, but I never thought the investigation would bring me back here to this town. Or to you.”

“It’s a small world.”

“Very.” Cas sighed. “I didn’t expect to have our reunion at a crime scene.”

“You and me both, Cas. I’m just glad Sam is miles away from here in California,” Dean said. “I guess this is a federal case now?”

Cas nodded. “You didn’t look surprised to see me.”

“I know you’re with the FBI, man. That is all everyone wants to talk about at class reunions,” Dean said. He’d gone to every reunion, sitting with people he hated and listening to pissing contests over who got the best job and the prettiest wife. He always got home drunk after another one of Cas’s no-show, and Cas never turned up. “I tried to call you whenever we had one of those, you know.”

“I’ve changed my number, Dean,” Cas said apologetically. “I would’ve called you back if I knew, but my work is very demanding.”

“I bet,” Dean said with a hint of bitterness, because since when had he been a priority in anyone’s life?

If Cas noticed, he didn’t say anything about it. “What do you do now, Dean?”

“I work in sales. I mostly do door-to-door, so I travel a lot for my work.”

Cas frowned. “I thought you wanted to be a mechanic. You love cars.”

Dean’s heart fluttered at the thought that Cas remembered that much about him. “What can I say, I love the open road more,” Dean said. He cracked a wry smile. “I’m not surprised you end up in the FBI though.”

It’d been years since they first met, back when Dean attracted the worst kind of attention at school and Cas was a straight-A track star heading for the Ivy League. Dean didn’t remember the names or the faces of the bullies that tormented him, but he would never forget the day Cas saved him from a beating in the second floor washroom.

Dean fell in love the moment Cas stormed into the washroom like a pillar of fire.

Cas kicked everyone’s ass and more. He didn’t care that Dean looked like he crawled out of a domestic abuse ad. He reached out to pull Dean to his feet, despite the fact that Dean had a black eye forming over his old one and vomit covering the front of his shirt.

After that, he was always there to save Dean, and Dean to teach him there was something worth learning other than Calculus and English. Those were the best years of Dean’s life, until Cas moved away from their sleepy little town with an empty promise to return.

Dean never managed to tell Cas how he felt.

“Castiel,” a man in a dark suit called from the driveway. Cas waved back in acknowledgement.

“What is it?” Dean said.

“That’s my partner. I have a meeting with the sheriff. The police won’t be happy to know they have a Ben Butcher killing in their town,” Cas said. “I have to go.”

If there was one thing Dean never wanted to hear from Cas, that was it. It was like Cas just dropped a bomb on him. Dean didn’t realize he’d stopped Cas with a hand on his arm, when he said, “Can we talk later?”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Cas hesitated. “You’re a witness, Dean. I’m not supposed to talk to you outside of the investigation.”

“Come on. You’re just gonna leave me?”

“You’ll be fine, Dean. I promise.”

“I know how the Ben Butcher works, Cas,” Dean said, lowering his voice. “I read the papers, so don’t tell me I’ll be safe because I won’t be.”

“Dean, I won’t let anything happen to you,” Cas said. “There’ll be police officers stationed in front of your house.”

“You don’t get it,” Dean said, anxiety tying his stomach into knots. Cas was leaving again. This wasn’t supposed to be difficult, Dean did all the difficult parts, but Cas just had to be so damn stubborn and frustrating. “The fucker broke into my house, killed Adam, left a card with his name, and might as well have left a countdown timer for me, because we all know he always goes back for more, every fucking time.”

“Dean, please.”

“I’m not going back, not today.”

Cas huffed. “Then what, Dean? What will you do? You won’t be safe by yourself either.”

“I won’t get any sleep tonight, Cas,” Dean said. “I’m getting out of here, so you may as well come and keep me away from scary serial killers or whatever it is you do on your spare time.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Cas said, trying for authoritative and failing.

Cas just needed one little nudge. Dean said, “Do you remember the bar we used to sneak into? One time you got so wasted you tried to strip down in front of everyone. We were banned from that place for the rest of our senior year.”

“How could I forget?” Cas said, smiling a little at the memory. It was beautiful.

“I’m going either way, with or without you. So are you coming or not?”

Cas heaved a suffering sigh, but the smile at the corner of his lips betrayed him. “I’ll see you there tonight.”

“It’s a date.” Dean finally let himself grinned, the knots in his stomach loosening. This was everything he’d been working for the last two years ever since he picked up a knife. This was his dream came true.

He’d worked so hard, killing people, killing people’s family, and not getting caught. Sam was surprised when Dean quitted his job at the garage and became a salesman, but then his new job made it easier to enter certain places.

Like people’s homes.

The hardest part was turning his knife on someone he knew, but one look at one of Cas’s old pictures and he got up the guts to slice Adam open while Adam screamed like a pig.

Called him crazy, but he’d always been a sucker for Cas.

The man in the driveway yelled, “Hurry up. We’re going to be late.”

Dean said lightly, “I think your partner’s gonna shit himself.”

“Balthazar can wait,” Cas said, fumbling in his pockets. “I’ll give you my number. Please call me if you need help. I’ll come wherever you are.”

“Yeah, sure.”

Dean always pulled out the entrails from the bodies and spread them on the floor like angel wings. He needed to make sure Cas found and followed every kill.

It was a trail of bodies that finally led Castiel home.

Cas handed Dean his card. Dean knew he didn’t imagine Cas’s fingers lingering on the card before letting go. “Be careful, Dean.”

“I will. See you later, Cas.”

Dean had waited for Cas for a long time.

He could wait a little longer.


End file.
